Archive for the ‘Energy’ Category

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more disturbing series of events packed as closely together as the little child who died from a shrapnel wound, and the death of Marie Colvin, who took the ultimate risk by being there in the first place, and reported it to the world.

At this point, since Assad is committing mass murder of his own people by targeting civilians and residential neighborhoods, and he hasn’t taken the entire world’s suggestion to get the fuck out of Dodge, or Damascus in his case, he should be eradicated.

Are there any countries in the Middle East with a conscience? When Haiti was in ruins, the Israeli Defense Forces were in there before anyone else — before the United States! — and with mobile surgery centers, something the U.S. took over a week to do, and we’re only a short distance away.

So, if tiny Israel, a country that is always on alert, has the resources and the troops to help Haiti, why on earth do Saudi Arabia and the other oil giants in the area refuse to help their fellow Arabs?

Are all the other oil states using Syria’s mass murders to justify $5.00 per gallon gas? Sure as hell seems like it, doesn’t it? Do their sheikhs and pashas not have enough wealth?

I’m just wondering from my position here, at a computer in the U.S., how all the other Arab nations allow this kind of shit to happen in their own back yard. Is there not one country in the area with a collective conscience?

My suggestion for a federally subsidized nationwide construction program would include roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals, but would also feature new jobs creating sustainable energy solutions. Specifically, wind turbines.

It only makes sense. Harnessing nature’s energy doesn’t stop with creating hydroelectric power — and we haven’t even begun to tap into tidal power — the volatility of the weather around the country can also be turned in our favor by providing cheap, limitless energy to millions of Americans.

The government already has programs like Wind Powering America — this needs to be expanded, and we need to put Americans to work building the machinery and the infrastructure. Do the letters WPA mean anything to anyone? It was FDR’s best idea, and it helped bring America out of the Great Depression.

But when put side-by-side with the Anemometer Loan Program, administered by WAPA, the Western Power Administration Program, only five of the fifteen states with the highest sustained winds had an active program. There are ten states, just filled with unemployed Americans who would line the streets for the opportunity to get a job. Why is WAPA sitting on its ass?

How many jobs could be created if the Dept of Energy, who oversees all of the above agencies, would get anemometer loans going in Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and New Mexico?

I’m afraid we’re not going to get an answer from any government official on those questions — the issue will be skirted around, maybe never even brought up, and maybe never latched onto by the mainstream media, as much as I despise that term.

The more relevant question to the politicians who hold corporate millions and our futures in their hands, and the more likely to get answered would be: “How many electoral votes are up for grabs in those states?”

Because that’s what it all comes down to, every single time. Politics and politicians before people. The junior Hoffa may have had a point. I hope he doesn’t have to apologize for it.